Trio charged with stealing trade secrets

Suspects are accused of trying to sell PepsiCo Coca-Cola secrets

Published 5:30 am, Friday, July 7, 2006

ATLANTA - Coca-Cola and Pepsi are usually bitter enemies, but when PepsiCo got a letter offering Coca-Cola trade secrets it went straight to its corporate rival.

Six weeks later, three people appeared in federal court Thursday and were charged with stealing confidential information, including a sample of a new drink from the Coca-Cola Co., and trying to sell it to PepsiCo.

"Competition can sometimes be fierce, but also must be fair and legal," PepsiCo spokesman Dave DeCecco said earlier this week.

"We're pleased the auth- orities and the FBI have identified the people responsible for this."

Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, thanked Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo for its assistance.

A secretary accused of helping two men steal the trade secrets was ordered released on $23,000 bond Thursday in a case her lawyer likened to "a spy novel."

Joya Williams' co-defen- dants, a pair of ex-cons who served time together at the same federal prison in Alabama, were detained pending a preliminary hearing for all three on Tuesday.

Their attorneys would not say how Williams knew the two men.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Feldman also signed a protective order that prevents the defendants from revealing any secrets they know about Coca-Cola to anyone other than their lawyers. A Coca-Cola lawyer, Stephen Cowen, told Feldman he also may seek to bar certain documents and other information from being turned over to the defense during discovery.

But Williams' lawyer, Wanda Jackson, said outside the federal courthouse that the defense needs to see the product sample her client allegedly stole from Coca-Cola to be able to defend her properly.

Jackson also suggested the product may not be as secret as Coca-Cola has suggested.

"It does sound like something out of a spy novel or movie," Jackson told reporters outside the courthouse. "Why would they leave a product in an office that was easily accessible? What was in it?"

Coca-Cola hasn't said.

Jackson said the defense should be able to test the product.

Williams' father, George Williams, told reporters he is standing by his daughter.

"Up until this point, I believe she left each and every one of her other jobs in good standing," George Williams said.

He said that his daughter was excited to land a job at Coca-Cola four or five years ago.

The suspects were arrested Wednesday, the day a $1.5 million transaction was to occur.

They are charged with stealing confidential information, including a sample of a new drink, from Coca-Cola and trying to sell it to Pepsi.

Williams, who worked as an administrative assistant for a Coca-Cola executive, is accused of rifling through corporate files and stuffing documents and a new Coca-Cola product into a personal bag.

She has since been fired, the judge said during Thursday's hearing.

The three suspects face charges of wire fraud and unlawfully stealing and selling Coca-Cola trade secrets.

As the suspects appeared in court, more details about their backgrounds emerged.

At the time of the alleged theft, Williams, 41, of Norcross, Ga., had been working for a senior manager, Javier Sanchez Lamelas, who is a global brand director for the beverage giant, the company said.

She doesn't have a criminal record, according to her attorney.

Edmund Duhaney, of Decatur, Ga., who told the judge he is 42, served nearly five years of a seven-year sentence at a federal prison in Montgomery, Ala., for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, according to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman.

He was released in 2005.

Ibrahim Dimson, of New York, who told the judge he is 28, served less than one year of a two-year sentence for conspiracy to commit bank fraud at the same prison as Duhaney.